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The Guardian was originally painted grey, concealing the unusual material it is made of, but the waves which have lapped its sides have stripped the pain away and shown its true nature.

Wood is used to construct minesweepers because some types of mines are designed to latch on to metal using magnets and detonate in the presence of metal ships.

Hanging around: Salvage crew members are transferred by crane to the USS Guardian

Swept up: The minesweeper ran aground on the UNESCO World Heritage site in the middle of January and an investigation into the grounding is still ongoing

Deconstruction: The operation involves cutting the fiberglass-and-wood hull of the Guardian into three parts before the vessel is lifted from the reef

HOW TO PROTECT A MINESWEEPER

Avenger-class minesweepers have their hulls built of wood and fibreglass, rather than metal.

This
reduces the chance that the ship can be targeted by mines by lowering
its 'magnetic signature', and provides extra protection in the event of a
blast.

Constructing
wooden hulls to some extent requires a return to traditional
ship-building techniques, from the time when timber rather than metal
was routinely used for ocean-going vessels.

Tough
woods such as oak, Douglas fir and Alaska cedar are fashioned into the
shape of the ship's hull, then covered in a mixture of plastic and
fibreglass.

The ship is then painted grey so that it resembles the metal of an ordinary naval vessel.

Moreover, the oak, Douglas fir and
Alaska cedar used to construct the 225ft Guardian give it surprisingly
good protection from bomb blasts.

Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista, commander of the Philippine Coast Guard told GMA News: '[The U.S. has] been submitting updates and new timelines based on the work already done.

He added: '[The salvage operations]
is very dynamic. They come up with revisions based on the progress of
the work. They've been updating us.'

Once the top decks of the ship, which
ran aground in the environmentally sensitive Tubbataha Reef in January ,
are clear, the fiberglass-and-wood hull of the Guardian is being cut
into three parts before it is lifted from the reef.

In addition to the
operation to pull the ship apart, the U.S. Navy has said that the
Guardian was decommissioned and struck from the Naval registry on
February 15.

A replacement minesweeper, the USS Warrior, is being transferred to the Pacific to relieve the Guardian, the Navy said.

The
vessel, currently in Bahrain, will be ferried by a heavy transport ship
to the U.S. naval base in Sasebo, Japan, from where the Guardian's
crew will take over its operation, according to a Navy statement.

'We are preparing for the 02 level for removal,' said Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista of the Philippine Coast Guard.

'This includes the cutting of the bolts, cables, wires prior to the lifting and inspection of the lifting points.'

Dismantling: The second deck level of the minesweeper USS Guardian is guided onto a U.S. Navy vessel

Out of commission: In addition to the operation to pull the ship apart, the U.S. Navy has said that the Guardian was decommissioned and struck from the Naval registry on February 15

The minesweeper ran
aground on the UNESCO World Heritage site in the middle of January and
an investigation into the grounding is still ongoing.

Already,
naval officials have said that the U.S. National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency which prepares the charts used by the
Navy reported a false location of the reef and misplaced it by nine
miles.

As it ran aground
the ship is estimated to have ruined around 43,000 square feet of the
reef and the U.S. Navy has pledged to clean any debris left from the
vessel's fiberglass and wood hull.

The
Philippine Government has said that it will seek sufficient
compensation from the USA for the damage and Harry K. Thomas Jr. the
U.S. ambassador to the Philippines has said America will 'provide
appropriate compensation for damage to the reef caused by the ship.'

Stuck: The USS Guardian, seen in January, is still on a coral reef in the Sulu Sea near the Philippines

Problem ship: Even rough waves aren't enough to get the USS Guardian out of the reef

The Guardian has become a political and logistical nightmare for the Navy since it ran aground on in the Sulu Sea.

Navy
engineers decided their only option is to destroy the 225-foot ship by
cutting it up and hauling it away on a barge, instead of trying to drag
it off the reef.

The vessel, which would cost $277million to replace, is 23 years old and one of just 14 of her type in the Navy.

It was on its way
from Subic Bay, Philippines, to its next port call in Indonesia when it
struck the reef, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east-southeast of
Palawan Island in the Sulu Sea.

Attempts to free the Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship at
high tide were unsuccessful. Its crew was evacuated to other vessels,
and the ship was battered by waves that pushed it farther onto the reef.